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School District Staff Spotlight on Looney January 10, 2018

We caught up with School Resource Police Officer Bryan Looney early one recent Friday morning after his morning patrol of the Marshfield campus. He was kind enough to sit down with us to talk about his role as a School Resource Officer.

Looney is Marshfield alum, graduating as a member of the class of 2007. He attended Southwestern Oregon Community College until 2009, taking courses toward a Physics and Engineering Bachelor’s Degree. However, Looney’s direction changed when he decided to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. He completed a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a specialization in Homeland Security at Waldorf College.

Looney’s father is a captain with the Coos County Sherriff’s office and Looney commented that having grown up around law enforcement, he was drawn to this career because of its potential to make a positive impact on a community and its residents. He also mentioned that he knew a desk job was not what he wanted. Instead, he wanted to interact with people and be on hand to help resolve problems when they cropped up.

Looney was hired by the Coos Bay Police Department in 2010. When we asked Looney what a School Resource Officer does, he laughingly replied, “A lot.” He went on to explain that he is responsible for investigating any crime that occurs on a Coos Bay school campus. His mission is also to increase student safety by serving as a deterrent to crime by being present and to decrease police response time should an incident occur. Looney said that he wants to develop good relationships with students to give them a positive view of police and help students realize police officers are real people. Looney works with a canine partner, Katie, a three-year-old Springer Spaniel drug detection dog.

Although Looney has been a School Resource Officer for only a brief time, he says that he already has a sense of being part of a good school district, headed in the right direction. He told us that students and staff seem happy, positive, and excited about what they are doing.

When we asked Looney what his goals were for his work in the schools, he commented that he hopes to take advantage of opportunities to cultivate more student leadership.

We’re glad to have Marshfield graduate Officer Bryan Looney back on campus in his new role and we wish him the very best as he begins his work with Coos Bay school students and staff. Officer Looney is another example of the truth of the motto, “Once a Pirate, Always a Pirate.”